OPP officer found not guilty of criminal negligence, perjury

A relieved Const. Sean Coughlan, right, smiles with his legal team after a Sarnia jury delivered a not-guilty verdict Tuesday night. With him are lawyers Jennesa Plaine and Phillip Millar. NEIL BOWEN/Sarnia Observer

In making their decisions, Superior Court Justice John Desotti had told jurors “common sense will be your guide.” Desotti had also briefly reviewed Crown and defence submissions that were made during the two-week trial.

Coughlan was doing what he should as a good cop by following a speeding vehicle creating a cloud of dust on a rural road in the southeastern corner of Lambton County, Millar said in his closing submissions.

Coughlan told his superiors he had been trying to close a gap with the vehicle but did not know it was an ATV due to the dust, Millar said, referring to a statement by Coughlan that was a trial exhibit.

In his closing submissions, Crown lawyer Peter Scrutton said the chase started on a paved road where there wasn’t any dust.

The cruiser’s recorded data indicated it was doing 93 kilometres per hour in a 50 km/h zone on a paved road. The injured ATV rider, Labadie, had sped down the same paved road before turning onto the gravel road.

Labadie suffered facial fractures and a brain injury that had left him in critical condition. He had testified during the trial that he had been bumped by the cruiser before going off the road.

The cruiser’s top speed as determined by GPS recordings was 135 km/h. The position of every OPP cruiser is automatically and continually recorded.

“The chase is on. . . . He was not in performance of his duties. He was chasing an ATV that he is not allowed to do,” Scrutton had argued.

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